Shore Leave, Take 2
by runnergirl1228
Summary: A short TNT drabble set on Risa sometime after season 4. (Nobody gets mugged this time, though.)


**A/N: Hey guys! It's been WAY too long since I posted anything (years, in fact!) but I have a couple of WIPs that I'm planning on posting once I finish them, hopefully before the end of the summer. For now, though, here's a TNT drabble that's the end of a short story I have in mind, and if you guys like it, I'll see what I can do about expanding it. The other stories I've posted on here are somewhat sad so I thought I'd try my hand at publishing something cute. Enjoy!**

Hours after she had fallen asleep, T'Pol opened her eyes. The room was still dark, and for a few moments she wasn't quite sure what was going on, but Trip was there, so it made sense that he was the one who had awakened her.

"Hey," he whispered to her. "Sorry to wake you, sweetheart, but there's something you've got to see."

She tossed and turned a bit beneath the blankets before she felt fully awake. Perhaps sharing a room with him during the crew's second visit to Risa wasn't the best idea after all. What was it, she wondered, that was so important that it couldn't wait until morning?

"Why did you wake me up?" she mumbled.

"Just come to the balcony. I _promise_ you, you'll love this. Trust me."

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see that he was smiling. Whatever it was, he was clearly excited about it, but she hardly wanted to get out of bed to see it. "I'm not properly dressed," she argued. As much as she cared for him, there were times when he could be very irritating. Hopefully he wouldn't make a habit of waking her up in the middle of the night.

"Can't you take the blanket then? Or – I'll get you that robe you packed. Where's your bag?"

"It should be at the foot of the bed," she told him reluctantly. She closed her eyes and leaned back in bed, and although she couldn't see him, she could hear him digging through the main compartment of her luggage. After about half a minute, he spoke again.

"There, found it," he said as he gently set it down on the bed next to her. "Really, you have to come see this." And with that, he disappeared behind the curtains separating their room from the balcony outside.

If he was willing to go to all this trouble just to get her to look at something outside, she might as well go with him. She'd also been involved with him long enough to know that when he was this enthusiastic about something, he wasn't likely to calm down anytime soon, so she pushed herself up into a sitting position, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood up. Once her hands found it, she took the bathrobe she wore so often and slipped it on over her pajamas. Risa must have seemed unusually warm to him, but she was used to much hotter, drier weather, so what felt like a particularly hot summer day to him was simply an average temperature for her. At least she now had an extra layer of clothing to wear outdoors.

Slowly, she made her way across the room and followed him outside. The floor was cool to the touch, and the nighttime breeze certainly wasn't as warm as the pile of blankets she'd just left, but once she stepped past the white flowing curtains and outside onto the balcony, she was pleasantly surprised by what she saw: a dazzling display of lights falling from the heavens.

It was a meteor shower. Just a natural phenomenon that occurred when a planet passed through a region of space containing a high concentration of cosmic debris. She'd observed many of them before – and on several different worlds, not just Vulcan and Earth. As someone who spent a great deal of time studying astronomy, she appreciated each one, but not always for the same reasons her crewmates might have. Yes, they were beautiful, but watching them never evoked an emotional response…until now, at least. It was different this time – maybe because he was here with her, and also because he'd known she would want to see it. He may have woken her up, but he, too, had sacrificed a few hours of sleep just to show her something he knew she'd enjoy.

She didn't say anything; she just looked at him, and he looked back at her with that same smile still on his face. He placed his arm around her waist – tentatively, because he wasn't sure that she'd let him after waking her up in the small hours of the morning – but once he knew for sure that she was comfortable with it, he pulled her in closer towards him. Still tired, she responded by resting her head on his shoulder.

And almost simultaneously, they turned their heads up towards the sky to watch the meteors falling to the planet below.


End file.
